He’s been called “The Godfather of Dance Music in Australia”, with a career spanning more than twenty years behind the decks and a track record for having rocked the biggest parties across the nation since before John Farnham even started contemplating his first retirement. As co-owner of Vicious Vinyl, one of Australia’s most widely respected dance music record labels, he’s had a hand in bringing some of Australia’s finest dance music talent to the ears of the world. He’s just finished mixing the Ministry of Sound’s upcoming Sessions Three CD alongside labelmate Goodwill, and he’s taken a few minutes out of his busy schedule to give ITM the inside scoop.
“It was a lot of work!” John says in response to my question regarding his latest mix, the first CD of Sessions Three. “DJing in a club is one thing, but when you’re making a mix for a CD that you know people are going to listen to over and over and over again, it has to be perfect.” It’s early on a Monday evening, and if John is tired from another long weekend of DJing, he certainly doesn’t seem it – his enthusiasm is infectious, and he’s clearly keen to explain the thinking and process behind one of this year’s most hotly anticipated dance music compilations. “I’m really happy with the tracklisting, and how the mix itself has turned out,” he tells me. “We started with a list of thirty songs that I felt were good potential candidates – tracks that have been working really well for me in my sets, and tracks that we think will do really well over the coming months. It’s been great working with Ministry of Sound in that regard, because they are such a well-known brand and their compilations always sell so well, in that we were able to get permission to use almost all the tracks we’d been hoping for.”
For the compilation itself, John concedes that putting it together took a lot of work even once the licensing issues were out of the way. As is the case with an increasing number of world-class DJ compilations, for Sessions Three John took the extra effort to “key” the individual tracks prior putting the mix together, taking note of the musical content of each track and determining the sequence of and transitions between each with an ear to musical harmony. “As a DJ if you have a decent ear for music you develop a flavour over time for putting tracks together, but when you properly key your mixing you guarantee that musically its going to work,” he explains. “That doesn’t mean that rhythmically or vibe-wise it’s necessarily going to work,” he adds, “and of course when playing live the most important priority is to play the right track at the right time.”
Discussing the issue of mix production further, the topic turns to DJ technology. Despite his well-deserved reputation as a turntable master – with the DMC championship titles to prove it – he concedes that, at least to him personally, vinyl’s time has come and gone. “Vinyl doesn’t have a future, but I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing. It may not be as romantic, but there is just so much more manipulation that can be done if you know what you’re doing with a CDJ1000,” he explains. “As I’m saying this,” he quickly adds with a chuckle, “realise I have fifteen thousand records in the next room!” “But,” he continues, “CDs are a lot easier to carry, you can do more tricks with them, and sonically they’re much more predictable. Two years ago, I would have thought vinyl had ten years left in it, but now I see that’s not the case. Having said that, we still do some vinyl releases, and I still buy vinyl, but now I take it home and I burn it to CD and play the CD out.”
I’m curious to hear John’s thoughts as a label owner regarding digital downloads, and as has been the case throughout our conversation, here John is honest, direct and to-the-point. “As a label, revenue for us for vinyl is often negative by the time you crunch all the numbers. The digital download model already represents a better financial model for almost everyone in the chain. Digital is quick to market, the sound quality is consistent, and the market is bigger – if an artist can sell an extra thousand copies on iTunes, that makes a real difference.” What about marketing and distribution? “The record company still plays an important role in marketing and distribution, in making sure that the right people hear releases when the come out, and that there is still a network and a strategy. You still need those tools.” “And,” he adds with a laugh, “of course you still need to have a great track!”
As one who’s spent considerable time involved in the dance music community as a DJ and label owner, and as one who’s had a hand in crafting some of Australia’s best-selling dance music compilations, John Course has certainly had time to form an opinion on the thorny issues of copyright and ownership as they relate to compilation CDs, be they the latest platinum-selling Ministry of Sound package or an up-and-coming bedroom DJ’s latest demo CD. Having tripped over a comment made about “illegal DJ mix CDs” that John had made in a previous interview, I tenderly broach the topic and ask for some more insight. Here again John pulls no punches. “I don’t really have a problem with the sort of demo CDs that DJs give out for free – I don’t think anyone does. Where it becomes a problem is where you have clubs that press up a few thousand of a mix, without giving any credit to the original artists or labels, you know, ripping everyone off the whole way. It’s a small industry, and that sort of thing, when it goes on, it’s hard not to see it as just raping and pillaging, really. The same goes for DJs that sell their CDs out of the DJ box. Thankfully we haven’t seen as much of that behaviour in the house scene as, say, the R&B scene has seen – in Sydney in particular it was quite prevalent. We see it, the artists see it, and it really just hurts the entire scene as a whole.”
So what, then, of bootlegs, edits, mashups, and the like? “You have to be reasonable, I think. If it’s a mashup or a remix, I think its best when it’s a real reinterpretation of a track that just uses a piece of the original. Done that way, it can create a new buzz about the original track and create a win-win situation.” He pauses for a moment before continuing. “I suppose at a point here, my DJ mentality can be at odds with my business mentality, but it’s important to do things right. Rock companies have to deal with this sort of thing a lot. One example I can think of is the track Horny as a Dandy, which was a mashup of a Dandy Warhols track and a Mousse T track, in which all the artists were involved and happy with how things panned out.” I ask about the Dirty South remix of Too Late by Evermore, a track that started as a rock track but, in the guise of Dirty South’s rerub, has been making serious inroads into dance music territory – and is the track John selected to open his Sessions Three mix with. “That’s a perfect example,” John enthuses. “Evermore was given writing credits, and Dirty South remix credits, and once we heard what the finished mix sounded like, we went right to Evermore’s management to clear everything before releasing it, and having done it the right way, everyone’s happy and everyone gets credit where it’s due.”
Too quickly, our conversation nears an end. We briefly discuss the upcoming Sessions Three tour, which sees John and Goodwill playing nearly thirty dates across Australia during June and July to promote the album, and as I hang up the telephone and scan over my notes I’m impressed by the amount of ground that we’d been able to cover in such a short amount of time. Looking over the tour dates on the information sheet in front of me, I open my diary and make a note to track John down during one of his stops in town. If you’re a fan of quality house music and have an interest in hearing it from this country’s foremost purveyor of it, you might want to do the same.
Ministry of Sound’s ‘Session Three’, mixed by John Course and Goodwill, is out now through Ministry of Sound/EMI. They’ll be touring the country throughout June and July to celebrate its release:
Fri 2-Jun – Frankston, 21st Century – John Course
Sat 3-Jun – Cairns, Velvet Underground – John Course & Goodwill
Sun 4-Jun – Perth, Metro City, Capitol & Old Berlin – Goodwill
Fri 9-Jun – Broome, Oasis Bar – John Course
Fri 9-Jun – Geelong, Club 4 Play – Goodwill
Sat 10-Jun – Newcastle, King Street Hotel – John Course & Goodwill
Sun 11-Jun – Parramatta, Roxy – John Course & Goodwill
Fri 16-Jun – Wollongong, Bustin – John Course
Fri 16-Jun – Albury/Penrith TBC – Goodwill
Sat 17-Jun – Coffs Harbour, Plantation Hotel – John Course & Goodwill
Fri 23-Jun – Canberra, Academy – John Course
Fri 23-Jun – Townsville, The Embassy – Goodwill
Sat 24-Jun – Sydney, Kink at The Arthouse – John Course & Goodwill
Thu 29-Jun – Darwin, Discovery – John Course & Goodwill
Fri 30-Jun – Alice Springs, Melanka Complex – John Course & Goodwill
Sat 1-Jul – Gold Coast, Platinum – John Course & Goodwill
Fri 7-Jul – Melbourne, Room 680 – John Course & Goodwill
Sat 8-Jul – Brisbane, Family – John Course & Goodwill
Fri 14-Jul – Auckland, Met & Code – John Course & Goodwill
Sat 15-Jul – Traralgon, Inferno – John Course & Goodwill
Thu 20-Jul – Hotham TBC – John Course
Fri 21-Jul – Geelong, Club 4 Play – John Course
Fri 21-Jul – Wollongong, Bustin – Goodwill
Sat 22-Jul – Launceston, Lonnies – John Course & Goodwill
Fri 28-Jul – Townsville, The Embassy – John Course
Fri 28-Jul – Noosa, Rolling Rock – Goodwill
Sat 29-Jul – Toowoomba, USQ Bar – John Course
Sat 29-Jul – Burnie, Siroccos – Goodwill
